Posted December 29, 2023

A/N: "Chuck vs the Third Dimension" ended with "To Be Continued" but it was never continued, so we never found out how it continued, with all of the typical flirty, pre-Charah goodness. We know Team Bartowski kept going on missions, Eventually Barstow, Prague, Paris, Russian invasion, and Sarahsect happened. We don't know what happened right after Chuck got into Casey's car. This canon-compatible story provides the answer.

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Disclaimer 2: If you PM me issues, I'll fix them. There's no expiration date.

Wednesday, January 7, 2008, 2am
Echo Park Apartments Parking Lot

Sarah could barely contain her happiness. Chuck had joined her in the car! (Technically, he joined them, but at this point, she too happy Chuck joined her to care about the big guy in the driver's seat) She had done a lot worse things than shoot Mauser—things Chuck didn't know about—things she could never imagine telling him. She liked to think she had done more good things, but most of the time, it was other people's orders, so she didn't worry about the reason. She only was positive a few times. Protecting Chuck was one of those. She killed Mauser to protect Chuck, which made it a good thing, even if he didn't like it.

Him getting in the car was more "forgiveness" that she could ever hope for and more than she thought she deserved. She did what she did to protect Chuck—not to earn his forgiveness or approval. She didn't like the thought that he didn't want to be around her, so this was better.

Never quiet, after less than a minute away from the apartment, Chuck cheerfully asked, "So, what's the mission?"

Casey growled, "Why should we tell you?" To Sarah, he directed his next questions. "Why is he here, Sarah? Didn't you give him the night off?"

Considering how excited she was on the inside, Sarah didn't know what to say without compromising herself. Chuck had been uncomfortable around her because he saw what she did, but now he didn't want to stay away from her anymore. It thrilled her a tiny bit… but she couldn't tell Casey any of that. She wasn't supposed to feel like she did. Her feelings towards their "asset" were not supposed to be a factor.

Despite what she wasn't supposed to feel, it felt wrong to think of Chuck as an "asset." She always thought assets were useful tools, not heroes, like Chuck. He was more than a hero. He was definitely more than an asset to her, in ways she couldn't think about, no matter where he was sitting.

Fortunately, from in the back seat, Chuck responded to Casey's question for her. "She did give me the night off, but I'm here anyway. I'll help however I can… you know… flashing." Looking at Sarah, he said, "The last time I spent the evening away from your surveillance, I ended up hanging off an elevator. Why would I ever want to spend time away from you again?"

Since his eyes were on the road, Casey thought the final part of the response was to him, so he grunted back. Sarah got the message, though. He was saying he didn't want to be away from her. Forget a "little bit." It thrilled her more than she could ever admit.

Chuck brought her thinking back to the mission. "Why do we have a mission that wasn't because I flashed?"

"You don't have a mission, Moron, and this mission is because of the Intersect."

Confused, Chuck looked at Sarah, and she explained, "This is a followup to break into the office of Tyler Martin's record label."

"I didn't flash on it."

Another grunt. "Real spies don't need the Intersect."

Chuck did something with his phone, and Sarah saw the tell-tale reaction. "Did you flash, Chuck?"

"Yeah. I flashed when I pulled up the record label's website on my phone. We should investigate."

Another grunt. "We didn't need the Intersect to know that. We guessed they might have contact information and computer log history for the people who were getting the messages from Martin's tattoo. Real spies figured that out without the Intersect, so real spies will retrieve the information. You're staying in the car."

Casey's mind was made up, so Chuck wisely stopped questioning.

They stopped downtown, outside the record label's office. Sarah spoke before Casey said anything. "Chuck, get out of the car and come with me."

Chuck didn't follow her orders immediately, which in a way was a good thing. "Casey said I should stay in the car." She wanted Chuck to not only trust her but follow the orders of both of his protectors.

"I'm saying you should get out." She turned to her partner. "Casey, Chuck should not be seen in a parked car by himself after 2am. You can safely park nearby. You'll drive off if someone is too interested, but don't want anyone else driving your car." Looking to the back of the car, she smiled and said, "Don't worry. We'll be fine, Chuck."

"Of course we will. I trust you. What are we doing?"

"You're pretending to be my boyfriend and will walk me into the office. If we need to hide, we'll duck in a closet."

Chuck opened and shut his mouth a couple times, but didn't say anything. She explained her impromptu plan. "That's just a backup plan that works with the cover. We shouldn't need to do that. With you with me, no one will suspect a thing."

Chuck looked from Sarah to Casey. "Was he going to be your boyfriend?"

The NSA agent grunted at that thought.

Sarah answered, "No, of course not. That cover isn't very believable, so it's something we only do in a pinch, like when you got captured by that arms dealer, La Ciudad."

Chuck looked down. "Sorry."

The older agent grumbled back. "You should be sorry. It was dangerous to dance with the killer you were supposed to know about because of that thing in your noggin'."

Sarah thought of herself as a killer, too, but most of the time, Chuck didn't. She loved how she looked in Chuck's eyes. She never admitted that, though. Instead, she summarized the old plan. "I was going to go up the side of the building and enter through the access door on the roof. With you here, Chuck, you and I can pretend to be a couple and go in the front door. Everyone thinks we are dating, so you're better cover. It won't look suspicious."

"They don't know that cover here. Anyone who sees the two of us will know you're out of my league."

Why did he always think like that? If anything, it was the opposite. "No, I'm definitely not. Everyone will think we're together if we sell it."

She opened Chuck's door, held out her hand, and took his.

"We aren't really dressed for a breaking-and-entering mission. You're still in your heels."

They were boots with heels, but it didn't matter now. "It's good for the cover."

"You were going to scale up the side of the building in heels?"

Sarah shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time, but I wasn't planning on it. I have a duffel with sneakers in Casey's trunk."

They walked up the sidewalk to the front entrance. Before they went in, Sarah stopped and said, "This will help you get into character." Then she kissed him solidly on the cheek. "Don't look like I haven't kissed you before. That doesn't help the cover. It's not like it's close to the first time I've kissed you anyway. Look like we do that all the time and are supposed to be together."

She kissed him on the cheek again, even longer. She had to wipe it with her hand. That seemed to work. She could see the frozen shock disappear and his confidence return.

At the badge reader, Sarah let go of Chuck's hand and pulled out a device to hack the code. When it worked, Chuck opened the door and held it for her. Inside, Sarah waited for Chuck to come through and took his hand as they passed the security desk. She nodded at the night guard at the reception desk. She had been so fast with the hacking device, he hadn't seen her break in, so he thought she had used her badge and was supposed to be there. She was just with her boyfriend making a quick stop to check on something at her office, late at night. Chuck didn't work there, but wouldn't let her go late at night. The guard must have seen other couples come into the office late at night. She had expected that, which is why she picked the cover.

In the elevator, Sarah could feel Chuck was definitely nervous, based on his sweaty hand, He chattered, "Thanks for letting me come. I thought you might need me on this mission, but I should have known you could Spider-man your way in, so you didn't."

"I always need you."

"No, you don't."

Sarah sighed. There was no point in trying to win this argument while the mission was going on. Plus, Chuck was right, in a way. "Ok, I haven't needed you on missions before I came to LA, but there are some things I couldn't do without you." She did some couple-cover things with Bryce, and at the time, she thought she felt powerful, as part of a spy-couple. Many times, Bryce overdid it, though. She always felt better after doing it with Chuck. They weren't both spies. It simply felt right. "Missions like this are easier with you. As long as you are safe, I'm better with you at my side."

"The safest place for me is always with you." She heard him mumble, "even out of the car." She barely managed not to roll her eyes, but didn't call him on that.

At least they weren't in the middle of a silly argument on a mission. They were in complete agreement about the two of them needing each other. The problem was they were standing in an open elevator grinning at each other like a couple of fools. When the open door started to close at their floor, Sarah quickly stopped it so they could get off. She really needed to concentrate.

Walking down the hall, Chuck pointed out, "It wouldn't be good if we were caught by security on the top floor, like this. They might know every top exec with an office up here."

"I doubt it on the night shift." Sarah pointed to a nearby door to a supply closet. Chuck looked at Sarah like he didn't believe it. She explained, "A good spy always thinks for all contingencies. Being found in the closet with my boyfriend would be great cover. Anything to keep you safe."

For the second time in a couple minutes, they weren't on mission anymore. They simply stood staring at each other right outside the closet. This time, there wasn't a closing elevator door to break them out of their "bubble." Fortunately, Chuck broke them out of their mutual gaze. "But we need to complete the mission, instead of hiding." Sarah nodded, and they resumed their trip down the hall. "On the upside," their cover was as a couple, so she took a hold of Chuck's hand.

They didn't go to the big office with the reception desk outside. Instead, they stopped at an office just short of it. Sarah told Chuck, "The person in charge of the label would not risk his position by being involved with terrorists. We suspect this top VP wants more power. Also, he has a bad gambling habit."

"Like Jeff Bridges in Iron Man but with the gambling problem." Sarah didn't understand, and her blank expression led to Chuck explaining. "I told you about it. I went with Morgan back in May. I guess you don't know the plot. Tony Stark was kidnapped in Afghanistan by terrorists. He escaped by creating the first Iron Man suit. Turns out the terrorists were working with the #2 at Stark's company, who wanted the guy in charge out of the way."

Sarah didn't know what to say to that.

"You know what. It doesn't matter. There was a scene at the end that implied they are doing more movies for the Marvel Avengers. There was another Hulk movie later in the summer, with another post-credits scene, but the movie wasn't much better than the last one. It's all Marvel, not DC, so I doubt it will go anywhere. And that doesn't matter either."

Sarah still didn't know what to say. Apparently, comic book movies were giving Chuck a better sense of the spy world. She just hoped (for his safety) he'd never realize that. Having the Intersect in his head didn't mean he had superpowers and could flash to do anything he wanted. For example, they didn't magically make him a master of martial arts. She liked being needed.

Sarah pointed at the nameplate by the door. Chuck flashed, but she asked anyway. "Did you flash, Chuck? Is this the guy?"

He nodded, and she once again used the security badge hacking device. According to Casey, real spies didn't need the Intersect, but working with the human Intersect made a lot of the guessing go away.

Inside, Chuck moved to the desk chair by the computer. Before he sat, he looked at Sarah who was standing right next to him. She didn't even have to clear her voice, and Chuck immediately stepped out of her way and even pulled out the chair for her. "Sorry. I'm just used to taking charge of the computer keyboard."

She turned on the screen, moved the mouse to wake up the computer, and plugged a device into its front USB point. It hacked the password prompt and started copying the hard drive.

While it was copying the contents of the hard drive, Chuck mused, "I'm surprised the NSA didn't remotely do this tomorrow."

"It's time sensitive. The bad guy may not know that we've halted their operation, but he might've learned by the time the NSA could get in."

"I could have helped tonight from Castle."

Sarah stared at Chuck with skepticism. How would the head of the Burbank Nerd Herd be able to remotely hack into a terrorist's computer? "That's not necessary. We're here."

After a couple minutes, the job was done. Casey would transmit the files from Castle computers to NSA analysts. Sarah turned off the screen, unhooked the device, and took Chuck's hand for them to leave.

They didn't take anything. They only copied and didn't leave a trace. No one would know they were there. They were perfect spies. Well… She was a perfect spy and Chuck was not a spy but was with her.

Walking back the way they came, Sarah heard "ding" ahead, coming from where the elevator was. A guard must be doing the rounds. Fortunately, they were right next to the hiding spot she found earlier. She opened the door, shoved Chuck inside, and quickly shut the door to hide them.

A/N: What if they are found? Will their adventures continue? Will their romance still develop? Well, you know when Charah happens, but what happens now?